If you want to invest the lessons and growth of 2009 into your future, then YES. “You live and you learn” right

Umar ibn Al Khattab (radi ‘Allahu ‘anhu) said, “Take account of yourselves before it is taken of you. Weigh your deeds before they are weighed for you (on Day of Judgement) and beautify yourselves (with good deeds)…”

Here are 3 reasons to do this immediately:

If you’re not learning from your mistakes, they WILL re-occur

If you’re not excited for your future accomplishments, it’s doubtful you’ll have significant accomplishments to be excited about

If the concept of thinking about life is uncomfortable…then there’s a serious need for this

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Exercise:

Although an over-simplified exercise for goal setting, it’s a good start. You can do it in 5 mins or make it even better with 20 mins

1) Write down like 10 Things you’ve Accomplished, Learned, and will Focus on in 20102)Just brainstorm and then summarize to 3 or 5 so you can glance back at it later on.

Note: make it specific, time-bound, and slightly unrealistic to make it exciting (Few points from Sh.Muhammad Alshareef)

3) Share it – tell someone else so it has some accountability OR post it below saying you’re “DONE”

Reason: It’s amazing how the way we think and talk impacts our behavior.

3 L’s for Goals:

1) Life-en it – (ok this “L” is wack, but I really wanted to make 3 L’s 🙂

If you want to reach a goal, you must “see the reaching” in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal – Zig Ziglar

Make it real; KNOW that you can accomplish it, and don’t worry about HOW you’ll do it.

2) Love it – At a DiscoverU certification training with Sh.Muhammad Alshareef, during a coaching session, Noor said to Sh.Navaid Aziz“This goal should make sleep boring to you” – I found that fantastic.

1 – Romanticizing about goals – You know those da’wah goals that is so ‘nice’ to talk about…but has no substance or real meaning; like “I will bring khilafah back” or “I’m going to study Islam…going to, not yet. But when I do I will…” and of course “”My goal is to change the ummah.”

2 – Life regains the attention – there’s a strong motivation to do something, but then it dies down. Then comes another one – that person is directionless

It’s a terrible thing to see, but have no vision”

Rocking Horse

Even when going after goals and working really hard at it, it may just be the “rocking horse” approach.

Especially in da’wah, sometimes the goal is “lets just do something…something ya’nee”. Of course it’s good and their reward is with Allah, however it is just movement without significant progress.

Why Visions

Clear Focus, knowing it’s this way and not that way. That clear focus on a powerful vision will energizes people.